We’ve got Alex in the house for Round 2. He’s one of my favorite reads, one of my favorite thinkers; and works for one of my favorite companies: Shopify. (Well, maybe second only to Netflix) Alex has some real in-depth experience because of his time at Social Capital, he reads endlessly, thinks about fintech, and obviously understands e-commerce. We cover all that, discuss the joys of parenting, and round out with his really big passion around biotech. 

This week’s episode features a new friend, David Sacks. Maybe you’ve heard of PayPal? David was their first COO. He’s been in the room with Elon, Peter, and Max. David’s the founder of Yammer, turned around Zenefits as interim CEO, and founded Craft Ventures. Add investments in Facebook, Uber, Space X, Palantir, Airbnb and Houzz. He’s also co-host of the All-In Podcast. But today he’s here to talk about the future. And it’s so bright, we’re gonna have to wear shades!

Charlie Bilello is a veteran of the show and is back to talk markets, markets, markets. I like to catch up on the markets once a quarter – I could talk about the markets every day, but we’ve got a lot of stuff going on. And we love having Charlie on because he’s always prepared. We discuss zero percent rates and why the Fed is buying mortgages, the stealth bear market, and the delta wave impact on micro trends. So, come fly the friendly skies with me… Investing is easy!

Today’s guest is Rob Petrozzo. He’s the co-founder and Chief Product Officer of Rally. I’m a seed investor in Rally through Social Leverage going way back, and Rob knows his topic so well. He's a marketing culture person. I’m not saying you can’t learn this stuff, but it really just oozes out of his skin. Collectibles are 'right now'; and it's just opened up to the masses. It feels like it's on a rocketship about to take off. There's big money looking for the best in class and finding their way back to historic rarities. That on-ramp now exists for everyone at Rally.

On today’s episode I’m hanging out with my new friend, Nick Adler. I’m not sure the best way to describe him - he’s a lawyer, entertainment wiz, and works with the one and only Snoop Dogg himself. They’ve gone on a massive run together, and we get into crypto and NFTs and collectibles and digital. There’s so much movement, there’s so much happening, and celebrity culture is at the center of it. It’s a blank canvas if you’re willing to be adventurous and take chances. Nick also has his own Podcast: Who’s buying this sh!t.

Today we're excited to have Garry Tan from Initialized Capital. His resume is bananas. Garry is a Stanford grad, a Y Combinator alum, and a seed investor in Coinbase. We cover his early days with Posterous, cutting his teeth at Y Combinator, founding Initialized Capital, and his media moves on YouTube. Get an inside seat on what makes a great entrepreneur, founder, and investor. Garry's a big fan of the show, and it's safe to say he'll become a regular.

On this episode we discuss how the movie Let it Ride is the original speculation meme - long before Wall Street Bets was cool. We talk about why Greg’s panicked about fires. And of course, we talk markets – finding those markets where the secondary market can be bigger than the primary market. How this is all leading to the fractionalizing of shares; and the eventual need for a regulatory framework. We close with the figurative fires of how much is happening around consumer and business behavior, particularly post COVID, and Greg’s search for great teams in what he calls the “founder-market fit”

In this episode we cover the early days building Product Hunt in the Tenderloin district, Ryan's move to Miami, and raising money naked in the age of Zoom. After a stint at a video game company in Eugene, Ryan found his way to San Francisco where he worked at a startup called Playhaven. He spent three and a half years building a network, relationships, and blogging. He was curious about discovering great products and wrote a newsletter, which led to Product Hunt. Once he sold Product Hunt to AngelList, Ryan switched hats to become an investor with Weekend Fund. We talk a little crypto, building communities, and round out our conversation with the three favorite public companies he’d buy tomorrow, regardless of price.

On this week’s episode, we brought back a very special guest and probably one of the top 5 smartest people I know — John Street Capital. While he remains anonymous on the internet, he’s a good friend of the podcast. What makes John Street so unique is his deep understanding of everything from infrastructure, tech, banking, corporate development, VCs, trading, and more. John Street spends most of his time producing some incredibly thoughtful content on Medium. If you listen to John Street, I promise you’ll have a more clear understanding of how the markets work. On top of having such an insightful guest, I also had Don Nitti, a former Panic guest and portfolio manager, join me to help co-host this episode. In this episode, the guys and I talk about liquidity, private and public markets, exchange and crossover funds, why John Street is bullish on crypto, DeFi, regulations, buying the dip, retail investing, Coinbase, Citadel, Robinhood, Square, and more. Enjoy!

Ram Parameswaran has been dominating growth and “crossover” investing for years. He’s got an incredible mind and is a fantastic sharer of ideas, trends, themes, and insights. I’ve had Ram on the podcast in the past to discuss his background and investing thesis. So I figured it was about time to bring him back on to talk about the future, markets, and more. Ram’s firm Octahedron Capital is a crossover fund that invests in the internet economy. But before striking out on his own to start his own firm, Ram was doing big things at the multi-billion dollar firm Altimeter Capital (I’ve actually been a fan of Altimeter founder Brad Gerstner for some time and have shared links to his work in the past). Ram also has some big names in his past investments, including a pre-IPO Uber, Google and TikTok parent Bytedance. In this episode, Ram and I talk about investing in and demystifying the media’s views of China, regulation, building infrastructure, investing in tech, no-brainer investments, SPACs, and companies like Amazon, Uber, Roobinhood, and more. Enjoy!

If anyone knows fintech — it’s Julie VerHage-Greenberg. She was one of Bloomberg’s first fintech reporters and even covered Robinhood from before it was a billion dollar company. Since her time at Bloomberg, Julie has gone on to build her own media and newsletter company. Fintech Today is a community and media/content company focused on the fintech startup ecosystem for investors, entrepreneurs and operators in the space. On top of her founder duties, Julie is also an angel investor, startup advisor, podcast host, group fitness instructor, running coach, and yoga teacher. It’s alway fun to have reporters and fellow podcast hosts like Julie on Panic with Friends and ask them some questions for a change. In this episode, Julie and I talk about her jump to and building a fintech product, API, Robinhood, BNPL, Bitcoin, the gamification of trading, financial education, and more. Enjoy!

Raoul Pal leads Real Vision as co-founder and CEO. I’m a big fan and investor in Real Vision — a company with the goal of democratizing the very best of financial intelligence through media and video. Raoul has a history of managing hedge funds, and he was also one of a relatively small number of investors to predict the mortgage crisis of 2008–2009. Basically — he knows his stuff. I’ve also had Raoul on as a past Panic with Friends guest, and I loved getting his insights on the markets and crypto. So I figured it was time to give him another call and chat about what’s been happening in everything from the markets to tech since our last time together. In this episode, Raoul and I talk about the growing blockchain space, decentralization, crypto, the power of Twitter as a community, growing companies like FTX, asset allocation, inflation, and more. Enjoy!

I brought back Yoni Assia for another guest appearance on Panic with Friends. He is a good friend of mine who's been in the crypto space for a while now. Recently, I even got to catch up with him in Miami, which you can read about on my blog. I first met Yoni back in 2010. He was one of the first people to talk to me about Bitcoin, and I was immediately sold on the brokerage he was starting, eToro. Back then, I was telling all the venture capitalists I knew eToro was like “Zynga, but for men.” So, we invested. And I’m glad I did. EToro is now an over $10 billion Israeli social trading and multi-asset brokerage. They recently added 3.1 million new users in the first quarter of 2021 and clocked in 5.2 million users for the full year 2020. In total, eToro has reported 20 million registered users. In this episode, Yoni and I talk about Dogecoin, the most interesting characters in crypto space, eToro, capital markets, the rise of retail investors, “fashionology,” blockchain, SPACs, trends, liquidity, art, and more. Enjoy!

JC Parets is a good friend of mine who I first met back when I started Stocktwits, and he’s back for his second Panic with Friends episode. As the founder of All Star Charts, JC lives and breathes all things charts. If there’s a chart in front of him, you can bet he’ll have a strong opinion about it. His company All Star Charts is a technical analysis publication for everyone from hedge funds, to financial advisors, to individual investors. I was more than happy to bring JC back on to get his perspective on the markets and have a few laughs with him in the process. It’s fun to have market pros with such infectious energy like JC on that I can talk to for free, but I’d be happy to pay for his ideas and thoughts too. In this episode, JC and I go deep on the bull market, option strategy, the best technical indicator, gold, risk management, data, paying for ideas, and more. Enjoy!

For this week’s episode, we’re chatting with Sam Bankman-Fried. He’s a 29-year-old vegan living in Hong Kong. Oh, and he’s also a crypto billionaire with a huge cult following of fans around the world. Sam is the founder of two impressive companies: Alameda and FTX. His claim to fame came after capitalizing on the South Korean crypto kimchi premium (not the fermented food) and building FTX. Founded just a few years ago in 2017, FTX is one of the fastest growing digital asset exchanges in the world. I’ve had my eye on FTX for a while now and was excited to sit down with Sam to get his thoughts on the state of crypto markets and where he sees it going. In this week’s episode, Sam and I talk about his background, how he gets it all done, his preferred way to relax, living in Hong Kong versus the United States, stablecoins (and why they matter), crypto, defi, blockchain, derivatives, regulations, who he looks up to in the crypto space, and more. Enjoy!

On this week’s episode we brought on Michael Sonnenshein. He is the CEO of Grayscale Investments, a company that entered the world of crypto back in its earliest days. Starting as an account executive in 2014, Michael worked his way up under the guidance of Grayscale founder Barry Silbert and recently took the reins as their CEO earlier this year. He is an impressive, driven, and smart guy with formidable experience. Grayscale Investments is a big player in the crypto space, with the largest bitcoin investment product ($GBTC) and plans to ramp up an ETF. Grayscale is the world’s largest digital currency asset manager, which currently has $40 billion in assets under management and 14 different investment funds. They’re making crypto mainstream and helping everyday investors looking to buy Bitcoin on the stock market. In this episode, Michael and I talk about Grayscale’s success, crypto, retail investing, security, ETFs, decentralized finance, volatility, and more. Enjoy!

Ben Hunt is back for his third Panic with Friends appearance. Ben is co-founder and writer for Epsilon Theory, a newsletter and website that examines markets through game theory and history. He is is a great writer, investor, and an activist for people to stop being dumb (my words, not his). Ben wants you to invest with your head on straight, which is something I am a strong supporter of. He has helped navigate us through the ups and downs of the crypto space in his past appearances, and this episode is no exception. You can listen to his first and second appearances anywhere you get podcasts. This time around – and following our crypto conversation with Vinny Lingham from last week’s episode – Ben is giving his take on the bitcoin narrative. In this episode, I talked with Ben about his farm, raccoons (the real and financial kind), decentralization, the markets, how the bitcoin narrative has changed posts-crash, gold, the influence of Elon Musk, pricing power, why inflation is here to stay, and more. Enjoy!

In this week’s episode, I brought on Vinny Lingham – an entrepreneur, founder, prolific crypto investor, and decentralization pied piper. Vinny is an old friend who I first met back at a fintech conference in Ireland. We quickly hit it off after a round of golf and idea pitching. He has been in the crypto space since the beginning and has even been called a crypto ‘oracle’ due to his accurate bitcoin predictions. I figured he would be the perfect person to catch up with and get a point of view from following the recent epic crash in crypto. Vinny puts his crypto knowledge to use as co-founder and CEO of Civic, a blockchain-powered tech company that Social Leverage was also an early investor in. I truly believe in Vinny and the work he’s doing. In addition to his work at Civic, Vinny is a general partner at Multicoin Capital (a name you may recognize from past Panic guest Kyle Samani) and co-founder of the South African VC Newtown Partners. In this episode, Vinny and I talk about decentralization, crypto, the long-term scalability of bitcoin, blockchain, virtual intelligence, data privacy, and more. Enjoy!

For this week’s episode, I brought on my friend Jeff Richards for his third Panic with Friends appearance. In case you can’t tell, I never get tired of talking to him. Jeff is a great friend and an even greater thinker. And he just keeps picking winners. Jeff is managing partner at GGV Capital, a $9 billion global venture firm. He focuses mainly on enterprise, cloud, and marketplace investments. It’s been great having him on the podcast during different stages of the pandemic to get his thoughts and assess where we’re going. In Jeff’s first Panic appearance, he offered a sense of much needed calm back when everyone was panicking. In his second appearance, Jeff gave insight into the fintech boom and the post-COVID future of investing. This time around, I wanted to check back in with him about tech, growth, and the future. In this episode, I chatted with Jeff about infrastructure, fintech, the digital economy, crypto, cloud, ecommerce, and categories and trends coming strong out of the pandemic. And of course we had to talk about golf for a bit too. Enjoy!

This episode we’re talking about a subject near and dear to my heart: watches. Watches continue to be a timeless investment piece synonymous with value. And as someone who has collected over 50 watches, I was super excited to bring on Justin Reis of WatchBox to learn more about the growing tech-enabled luxury commerce market. WatchBox is the world’s leading platform for the buying, selling, and trading of pre-owned luxury watches, with offices in the U.S., Hong Kong, Switzerland, Singapore, and Dubai. In this episode, Justin talks with my co-hosts and I all about the luxury commerce market, WatchBox’s hybrid high-tech high-touch model, how their service works, the typical WatchBox customer, having value in brand equity, WatchBox TV, collectability, the rise in Apple and other tech watches, NFTS, and more. I also offered up some great dating tips this episode, which I know everyone was dying to hear about!

Jim Lanzone is somewhat of a legend in the internet industry. He’s racked up over 20 years of experience in the space, with former CEO titles at companies like Ask.com (formerly Ask Jeeves), Clicker Media (which he founded) and CBS Interactive (where he was my boss for a brief moment). Currently, he is the CEO of the popular online dating and networking app, Tinder. It was great to have someone like Jim on to not only offer his insights on all things media, streaming, and the internet – but also help give some tips to our Panic co-host Nikita on her own adventures into the world of online dating. In this episode, we chatted with Jim about branding, growth, the early days of video, his experiences as a CEO, content consumption, generational trends in dating, brands he’s rooting for and more. Enjoy!

My good friend Charlie Bilello is back for his second episode of Panic with Friends. He originally came on way back for episode two of our show and offered insights on the markets during peak COVID panic. If you go back and listen, you’ll see Charlie actually got a lot right. So now I figured it would be a good time to check back in with him as we make our way out of the COVID panic. Charlie has over a decade of experience as an analyst, lawyer, CPA, and overall nerd about the markets and money. But he’s more than just my crazy smart friend, I’ve also partnered with Charlie at his company Compound Capital Advisors. There, he oversees all facets of the firm, from research, to portfolio management, to product development, to content creation, to investor relationships. In this episode, we talk about inflation, the markets, crypto, shifts in trends, SPACs, irrational exuberance, bonds, the next generation of investors, and more. Enjoy!

Dan McMurtie is a 28-year-old founder, portfolio manager, and Twitter legend more commonly known to his nearly 60,000 followers as @SuperMugatu. He’s an insanely funny, original and inspiring guy who knows a lot about social media, maintaining an audience and the behavioral side of investing. Dan’s New York-based hedge fund, Tyro Partners LLC, focuses on trends and supply chains driving technology, healthcare, industrial, and consumer markets. In this episode, we cover a lot of topics: Dan’s big social media break, Wall Street culture, crypto, information overload, the 90% rule, Warren Buffett’s cult-like branding, the markets, and more. Enjoy!

Happy 150th episode of Panic with Friends! Thank you all for putting up with me 150 episodes; here’s to the next 150. For this episode, we are continuing to dive into crypto – a topic I’ve been fascinated by and discussing on the podcast for a while now. I’ve been astounded by the traction crypto has gotten, and there’s no better person to help give some context to what’s going on in this growing space than Kyle Samani. Kyle is co-founder and managing partner at Multicoin Capital, a firm that invests in all things crypto (including companies and tokens). I am a personal LP in his fund starting in 2017, and they have had positive results for me so far including the brutal bear market in crypto that began in January 2018. His firm is continuing to see excellent growth, just recently raising their second fund. He also came on the podcast back in October to discuss the “Wild West” of crypto and express his skepticism. A lot has changed just in those 8 months since his first appearance. This time around, we talked about how the crypto industry has evolved, what we can expect from crypto in the future, spotting trends, raising his second fund, decentralization and more. Enjoy!

Not only are we on the heels of our 150th episode, but we’re bringing in a new face (or rather voice) to join Knut and me in hosting Panic with Friends – Nikita Arora. Nikita is a fellow Canadian working at Social Leverage in a Principal role helping us as we raise fund four and grow our firm. In this episode of Panic, entrepreneur, founder, and CEO of Zerodha Nithin Kamath calls in and joins us all the way from Bengaluru, india. Nithin spent over a decade trading the markets for a living since he was 17 years old. After feeling the fatigue of day trading, Nithin started his company Zerodha with the intention of being a catalyst for change and started a brokerage firm that traders didn't have. Zerodha focuses on building the best tools and services for traders and investors in India. In short, Zerodha basically puts Robinhood to shame. On top of the amazing work Nithin does at Zerodha, he’s also a great person to look to for thought leadership. You can check out his views and insights in building businesses and trading the markets through his podcasts, social media, and blog posts over on his website. In this episode, the Social Leverage team and I talk with Nithin about trading in indian markets, entrepreneurship, his company and their overall strategy, crypto, India’s COVID crisis and more. Enjoy!